First Published 24th March 2017

Marie Wieck, IBM Blockchain

IBM has announced the new release of IBM
Blockchain, an enterprise-ready blockchain service based
on the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Fabric version 1.0. The
service enables developers to build and host secure production
blockchain networks on the IBM Cloud, and is underpinned by Linux
server IBM LinuxONE.

The Linux Foundation's open source Hyperledger
Fabric v1.0 is being developed by members of the
Hyperledger consortium alongside other open source
blockchain technologies. The Hyperledger consortium's Technical
Steering Committee recently promoted Fabric from incubator to
active state and it is expected to be available in the coming
weeks. It is designed to provide a framework for building
enterprise-grade blockchain networks that can scale as new
network members join and transact at rates of more than 1,000
transactions per second among large ecosystems of users.

"IBM has applied decades of experience running
the world's largest transaction systems for banks, airlines,
governments and retailers, to build the most secure blockchain
services for the enterprise," said Marie Wieck, general manager,
IBM Blockchain. "IBM's blockchain services are built on IBM's
High Security Business Network and designed for organizations
that require blockchain networks that are trusted, open and ready
for business."

IBM's High Security Business Network offers a
Linux infrastructure that integrates security from the hardware
up through the software stack, specifically designed for
enterprise blockchains by providing:

Protection from insider
attacks - helps safeguard entry points on the network
and fight insider threats from anyone with system administrator
credentials

The industry's highest certified level
of isolation for a commercial system - Evaluation
Assurance Level certification of EAL5+ is critical in highly
regulated industries such as government, financial services and
healthcare, to prevent the leakage of information from one
party's environment to another

Secure Service Containers -
to help protect code throughout the blockchain application -
effectively encapsulating the blockchain into a virtual
appliance, denying access even to privileged users

Tamper-responsive hardware security
modules - to protect encrypted data for storage of
cryptographic keys. These modules are certified to FIPS 140-2
Level 4, the highest level of security certification available
for cryptographic modules

IBM also announced the first commercially
available blockchain governance tools, and new open-source
developer tools that automate the steps it takes to build with
the Hyperledger Fabric.

The new blockchain governance tools help to set
up a blockchain network and assign roles and levels of visibility
from a single dashboard. They help network members set rules,
manage membership, and enforce network compliance once the
network is up and running.

Once setup is initiated, members can determine
the rules of the blockchain and share consent when new members
request to join the network. In addition, the deployment tool
assigns each network a Network Trust Rating of 1 to 100. New
network members can view this before joining and determine
whether or not they can trust the network enough to participate.
Organizations can also take steps to improve their Trust Ratings
before moving into production.

To help developers to translate business needs
from concept to actual code, IBM Blockchain includes new
open-source developer tools for Hyperledger Fabric called Fabric
Composer. Fabric Composer can help users model business networks,
create APIs that integrate with the blockchain network and
existing systems of record and build a user interface. Fabric
Composer helps automate tasks that traditionally could take
weeks.